


Eternal Recurrence

by letsdrivetoeternity



Category: En Attendant Godot | Waiting for Godot - Beckett
Genre: Don't Examine This Too Closely, M/M, What Was I Thinking?, this is random
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 18:18:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12216300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsdrivetoeternity/pseuds/letsdrivetoeternity
Summary: There is a saying that if we do not learn from history, it keeps repeating itself.





	Eternal Recurrence

Eternal return (also known as "eternal recurrence") is a concept that the universe and all existence and energy has been recurring, and will continue to recur, in a self-similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space. There is a saying that if we do not learn from history, it keeps repeating itself. The play ‘Waiting for Godot’ is one of despair, absurdity, boredom, impotence, and the eternal recurrence of the never consummated. Despite the moments of levity and slapstick that make these heavy themes bearable, Beckett’s masterpiece, apiece his entire corpus, leaves little room for hope or anything rose colored. Godot is about the recurrence of time, a play about the impossibility of tomorrow, because tomorrow is today, and today is yesterday. The tramps Didi and Gogo live in an eternal now, a present that is not the negating bliss of the Buddhist’s, but the desolate here of a country road, a tree, evening. The way is desolate, the worn shoes are too tight or too big, the only thing to eat are carrots and turnips mixed with pocket lint, the helplessness and acceptance of everything because there is no other choice, the branch beckoning suicide, and the inevitability of setting sun is the only thing that makes the silence of day tolerable. The play is set in a world where everything is recurring and the tone is set in a way where we don’t know for how long before we are introduced to the characters or for how long after we are done with the play, the events have been and will keep repeating themselves. Eternalism is usually associated with something positive or divine. As humanity is scared of death and what comes after it, the concept of eternalism is a way of assuring ourselves that physical death is not the end and we just won’t disappear and stop existing. However, this play makes the whole idea of a eternal life sound extremely depressing and unbearable. Vladimir and Estragon might have been waiting for Godot for centuries or just days, we wouldn’t know. Perhaps this Godot doesn’t come because Godot is actually dead or has abandoned the world. Perhaps Godot is God and the world is abandoned, so every rule and regulation, morality and values that existed before are just gone. So now there is a world but it has no purpose, no direction and it is just repeating itself because there is no one around to end it. In addition to the absence of a Christian God, Beckett creates a tension between Christian and anti-Christian attitudes in the play. The heroes of the play are two tramps with humble and meager means of existence; they come from nowhere and have nowhere to go, and they live very simply. Their lives are filled with fruitless expectation. They are hopeful that Godot will come, yet at the same time they are afraid of his arrival; Christians experience the same tension. Didi speaks of two thieves who were crucified at the same time as "our Saviour." Gogo proclaims that all his life he has compared himself to the same Saviour; Gogo flippantly articulates the tension created when an innately flawed human being tries to constantly measure himself against an impeccable God-figure. In addition, they both believe that they will be saved if Godot comes, but Godot won't come. While Beckett blatantly whirls tenets of Christianity around the essence of his characters, neither of the characters actually exhibit their beliefs as Christians. In fact, they demonstrate anti-Christian behavior. When the idea of repentance comes up, Gogo shrugs off the concept and says, "Repented what? ... Our being born?" The play is a constant contradiction and recurrence of itself.


End file.
